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To Build A Fire Naturalism Analysis

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In the short story To Build a Fire shows a significant amount of realism. Realism is the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly. Realism is a very big part of the story To Build a Fire because of the many events that happened. The hiker never tries to act out of character. He does everything that is humanly possible. The man behaves in the ordinary way. His feelings and reactions represent reactions and thoughts of usual people. He does not follow the advise of other people, who tell him not to go alone; he is afraid of death, like all usual people; and he dies like a normal person. Another example of realism is the setting is in a typical place. It could be in any cold area.(EssayTv) Therefore this story is a perfect example of realism because it shows life and how decisions, conditions, and human …show more content…

Naturalism is a style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail. It is an extreme form of realism This is shown all through the story when Jack London describes the settings and the gruesome weather in to the Yukon wilderness. The unnamed hiker also underestimates nature and how vicious it can be. He is very stubborn towards the old- timer from Suplher creek. He thinks even though he's a tenderfoot he can discard the advice because he is younger, more agile and can make it ten miles without a partner. All of these incidents could have been avoided if he just listened to the old timer, he could have taken the correct precautions and survived the trip. The dog survived, due to the fact it was better adapted to the Yukon wilderness than the tenderfoot . The irony of the story is that the man, even with the benefit of all the tools with which civilization has provided him, fails in his attempt to conquer nature and instead falls victim to it, while the dog, equipped only with the instinct which nature has provided, survives

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